Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin grabbed a share of the lead after a thrilling victory over Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran in the FIDE Grand Swiss at Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He is joined by German GM Matthias Bluebaum, who defeated Arjun Erigaisi. Both have 5.5 points.

 

 

Meanwhile, World champion D Gukesh plunged to a third successive defeat, losing to 16-year-old Turkish Grandmaster Ediz Gurel in the seventh round. Coming off reverses to USA’s Abhimanyu Mishra and Nikolas Theodorou of Greece, the rest day did little to arrest Gukesh’s slide as he made a bad move in the endgame to extend his losing streak. He now has three points from seven outings and needs to win all of his matches to stay in contention.